Kansas Metropolis Chiefs 27, Houston Texans 19

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• READ: Texans’ Dell suffered ‘important’ knee harm, to remain in hospital

Bobby Kownack’s takeaways:

1. Mahomes eats nails for breakfast. If there have been any lingering questions on whether or not Kansas Metropolis ought to play Patrick Mahomes on Saturday with a excessive ankle sprain, he answered them posthaste. The 2-time Most Useful Participant scrambled 9 performs into the Chiefs’ first drive for 12 yards on a third-and-13 to arrange an inexpensive fourth-down conversion, then shortly after ran for an additional 15 yards and a rating regardless of assembly an indignant cluster of Texans gamers on the purpose line. The gritty end-zone journey, his longest regular-season speeding landing of his profession, set the tone. He ended up main the staff in speeding till its final possession, and regardless that he didn’t look absolutely himself, he constantly navigated the pocket and located open targets. Xavier Worthy was particularly good. Much like Rashee Rice final 12 months, the rookie has delivered an uptick in manufacturing late in his first 12 months, as he noticed double-digit targets for the second consecutive recreation (and second time in his profession), turning it into 65 yards and a rating. Marquise Brown additionally seemed able to offering one other dimension to the offense. His output was a modest 45 yards on 5 receptions, however on his very first catch as a Chief he transformed a fourth down. On his subsequent, he moved the chains on a third-to-go. There’s one thing right here to construct on for Okay.C., with the tough-as-ever Mahomes main the way in which.
2. Houston is simply too sloppy in pricey loss. Groups received’t beat the reigning Tremendous Bowl champions whereas sabotaging themselves. The Chiefs have made that abundantly clear by going 14-1, even throughout a season through which they’ve by no means appeared at their finest. Houston hung robust on this one, including one other one-possession victory to Kansas Metropolis’s ledger, however by recreation’s finish hadn’t come near successful soccer. C.J. Stroud threw two ugly picks, with essentially the most egregious being an airborne throw that stopped a Houston drive in enemy territory and allowed Okay.C. to steal a discipline purpose proper earlier than half. He additionally dedicated two delay of video games, required a timeout to keep away from one other and took a red-zone sack when he selected to expire of bounds as a substitute of throwing the ball away. The Texans protection had a number of blown coverages and routinely didn’t set the sting towards scrambles, maybe anticipating Mahomes could be extra stationary along with his ankle harm. Worst of all, the tenor of the sport — and maybe the Texans’ season — modified on the staff’s finest play. Tank Dell nabbed a stupendous 30-yard toss from Stroud for a rating however suffered what gave the impression to be a severe knee harm within the course of, resulting in an emotional scene amongst his teammates. It’s particularly devastating contemplating Dell additionally suffered a nasty late-season harm final 12 months and was beginning to look again to himself. The Texans scored simply three extra factors over the following 27 minutes, and their vaunted WR trio to start out the season might now be all the way down to Nico Collins.
3. Chiefs D retains turnover celebration going. Kansas Metropolis’s protection adopted up its six-turnover efficiency final week with two picks towards the Texans. Though two interceptions doesn’t essentially leap off the stat sheet, creating takeaways has been one thing the Chiefs had been missing till lately. Saturday marks simply their third recreation forcing a number of turnovers. Each interceptions, one by Jaden Hicks on the primary drive and one by Trent McDuffie with 52 seconds remaining within the first half, led to factors — 10 in complete in a recreation determined by eight. The D turned more and more efficient at maintaining Stroud uncomfortable, too. Chris Jones and George Karlaftis had been key in that regard with six and 5 pressures, respectively, whereas Joshua Williams helped finish Houston’s comeback try with a sack on a nook blitz. Any time the Chiefs gave up a giant play, they appeared to reply with a much bigger one. It was an entire effort, they usually’re now one win or a Payments’ loss away from clinching the AFC’s No. 1 seed.

Subsequent Gen Stats Perception from Texans-Chiefs (through NFL Professional): The Chiefs generated stress on 9 of 16 dropbacks within the second half (56.3% stress fee), pressuring C.J. Stroud simply over half as usually as within the first half (eight of 27 dropbacks, 29.6%).

NFL Analysis: Kansas Metropolis’s 14 wins with 30-or-fewer factors this season is now essentially the most in NFL historical past, breaking a tie with the 1925 Frankford Yellow Jackets.

Baltimore Ravens 34, Pittsburgh Steelers 17

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• READ: Raven clinch playoff berth with win

Michael Baca’s takeaways:

1. Ravens protection stiffens in fourth quarter to safe win, playoff berth. After the offense secured a seven-point result in conclude the third quarter, Baltimore’s protection completed the job within the ultimate body, stifling the Pittsburgh offense to the tune of zero factors and 34 complete internet yards allowed in 4 possessions. Highlighting that dominance was Marlon Humphrey‘s 37-yard pick-six, which not solely gave the Ravens a two-touchdown lead however basically erased what might have been a pricey interception by the Ravens two performs earlier. It was in that second the wind appeared to be taken out of Pittsburgh’s sails, and whereas Lamar Jackson and the offense proceeded to seal the sport on their subsequent possession with an 11-play, 81-yard scoring drive (6:09 TOP) to make it a three-score recreation, Baltimore’s defensive stand late was an awesome tone-setter. Kyle Van Noy, Michael Pierce and Nnamdi Madubuike every notched sacks within the win, and the play of do-it-all security Kyle Hamilton (eight tackles, one go break-up, pressured fumble) was important for the Ravens’ late-game success. Now having secured a playoff berth with the win on Saturday, the Ravens are additionally alive and effectively within the AFC North divisional race. 
2. Turnovers — and lack thereof — hang-out Steelers. Russell Wilson‘s poor throw on the pick-six wasn’t the one turnover that resulted in factors for the Ravens. The Steelers quarterback coughed up a fumble on a scramble close to the crimson zone early within the second quarter — halting Pittsburgh’s probability at seeing a lead on this recreation. Baltimore proceeded to benefit from that momentum, driving the ball 81 yards downfield on a TD drive, and from then on, the Steelers unsuccessfully scrambled towards squaring the rating. In addition they jumbled when getting alternatives to safe free balls. On three separate events the Steelers did not hop on would-be fumbles — one approaching an Alex Highsmith strip-sack within the first quarter and the opposite two through Desmond King on punt returns in each halves. With the Steelers’ usually constant speeding assault gone lacking on Saturday, amounting to an uncharacteristic offensive efficiency, Pittsburgh was left taking probabilities late due to the shortcoming to snag that rectangular ball.
3. Baltimore owns an ace within the gap for the playoffs. Beware to these permitting the Ravens to have a late-game lead going ahead, as a result of Saturday’s efficiency additionally proved they’ve a transparent benefit in that situation. The Ravens leaned on the speeding assault closely towards Pittsburgh and it wasn’t the results of their dynamic QB. Derrick Henry was a menace, totaling 162 speeding yards (189 complete scrimmage yards) and carrying down what had been a hard-hitting Steelers protection down the stretch. After the protection pressured a turnover on downs to open the fourth quarter, Henry’s 44-yard rumble to open the next drive appeared to be the backbreaker earlier than Jackson’s INT on the very subsequent play. However that future down the sideline was paying homage to one thing we have seen this season when the Ravens are in want of closing out video games. They’re making ready Henry to be that nearer, maintaining him contemporary with simply 16 carries by way of the primary three quarters so as to ship the knockout punch that has been lacking in earlier playoff runs for Baltimore. 

Subsequent Gen Stats Perception from Steelers-Ravens (through NFL Professional): Derrick Henry rushed 24 occasions for 162 yards and 7 explosive runs, essentially the most by any participant in a recreation this season. Henry ran between the tackles on a season-high 62.5% of his carries, the place he had 5 of his seven explosive runs. Henry pressured 10 missed tackles and gained 66 yards after missed tackles, each of which had been his third most in a recreation this season. Henry has now gained 678 yards after missed tackles this season, 144 greater than the following closest participant.

NFL Analysis: Derrick Henry had his seventeenth profession recreation with 150-plus speeding yards (seventh-most in NFL historical past) and now has 4 seasons with 1,500-plus speeding yards (tied for second-most in NFL historical past).